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Penn State Volleyball Continues Its Dominance With Sweep Of Colorado

Penn State women’s volleyball continued its incredible dominance Friday evening, dismantling No. 21 Colorado in straight sets. It’s Penn State’s fourth win of the year in as many games, and the Lions have yet to lose a single set.

“I thought it was a competitive, but not necessarily well played match,” head coach Russ Rose said to GoPSUSports. “But you have to feel good about not playing your best and winning, and hope that you can improve.”

How It Happened

In the first set, Taylor Krause’s ace began a 6-1 scoring run to push the Lions’ lead to 10-5. Colorado quickly answered with a 6-1 response, leveling the score at 12-11. But two aces, several kills, and a Colorado error characterized another 7-3 Penn State run, and saw the No. 1 team in the nation approach set point, 23-15.

Three unanswered points by Colorado threatened Penn State’s advantage, but Ali Frantti quickly silenced that with a kill, giving Penn State a 25-19 first set win.

The Lions blitzed out of the timeout in the second set to open with a 6-0 tally. But the Buffs battled back, as they did in most sets all night, to bring the score within four, 14-10. After trading the next 14 points, Colorado went on the attack with a kill, bringing the score to 21-18. But Penn State was too strong, and three quick points put the Lions at set point, 24-18. It took a few tries, but the Lions secured the set soon after, to the tune of a 25-21 advantage.

The third set was more of the same, as Penn State jumped to a 9-2 lead, then continued its steady play until it was 18-9. This time, however, Colorado couldn’t make any run to close the gap, and a Frantti kill closed the set (25-18), and match.

Notes

Colorado recorded more digs and kills than Penn State, but its attacks were often thwarted by the Lions’ many blocks.

What’s Next

Penn State’s biggest game of the year comes Saturday night, when No. 2 Stanford comes to town for the final match of the 2015 Big Ten/Pac-12 Challenge. First serve is at 8:00 p.m., and the game will be live on the Big Ten Network.

James Franklin made two things clear before the Lions travel South: Carl Nassib is 100 percent healthy for a game for the first time in more than a month, and Christian Hackenberg and Austin Johnson have both applied for draft evaluations from the NFL.